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18.10.12

Daredevil Skydiver Breaks the Speed of Sound

If there is anything you really don’t want done, don’t dare Felix, the
guy can try anything. And for people who say the sky is the limit, the sky
proved no limit for Felix Baumgartner.

The Austrian daredevil, Felix Baumgartner rose to the edge of space on
Sunday — 128,100 feet, or 24 miles, above the Earth, before plunging faster
than the speed of sound

.

Minutes later, he landed in south-eastern New Mexico and, dropping to
his knees, pumped his fists to the sky. He had done what no one has ever done.
He had jumped from space; he had broken the speed of sound.

“He made it — tears of joy
from Mission Control,” his support team said.

Dubbed “Fearless Felix,” the helicopter
pilot and former soldier had parachuted from such landmarks as the PETRONAS
Towers in Malaysia and the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro. And he
did been preparing for his latest feat for five years — physically,
mentally and logistically.

By most accounts, all
the hard work paid off. According to preliminary findings cited by Brian Utley,
an official observer monitoring the mission, the 43-year-old Baumgartner flew
higher than anyone ever in a helium balloon and broke the record for the
highest jump.

Despite the death-defying tasks he has gone through over the years,
Baumgartner seemed taken aback when Utley detailed how fast he had fallen at
one point — 833.9 mph(373m/s,
1342.8kmph), or Mach 1.24, smashing his goal to break the sound barrier.

“I was fighting all the way
down to regain control because I wanted to break the speed of sound,” said
Baumgartner, who did it all with nothing but a space suit, helmet and
parachute. “And then I hit it.”

After a weather delay of several hours, he set off at 9:30 a.m. MT
(11:30 a.m. ET, 4:30 p.m. GMT) Sunday from Roswell, New Mexico, in breezy,
clear conditions, strapped into a pressurized capsule that hung from a giant
helium balloon. Over the next two hours, he rose high into the stratosphere.

Then he ran through a 40-step checklist, opened the hatch, disconnected
from the capsule, and climbed out onto a step the size of a skateboard.

“Guardian angels will take
care of you,” said Mission Control just
before he jumped.

“The whole world is watching
now,” Baumgartner responded.

After giving a salute, he jumped.

Sunday’s successful
jump breaks the record set in 1960 by Col. Joe Kittinger, who fell from 102,800
feet as part of a U.S. Air Force mission. More than 50 years later, Kittinger
was a consultant on Baumgartner’s effort, even serving as the lone person from
Mission Control talking to the Austrian throughout his attempt.